☰APRIL 2026

The Dying Light

Authors can sometimes get snooty when readers ask them where they get their ideas from. They roll their eyes, as if it's a question not worth answering. A cliché or too complicated to explain. I find it fascinating, though, to dig back into a story's history, to attempt to find the trigger that sets me off with a book.

At first, I wasn't sure about this title for this new Matthew Venn, but thinking about it now, the trigger was all about light. I'd been invited by the friends of Key West Libraries in Florida to speak at their annual fund-raiser. The invitation came long before this President was inaugurated, and of course I was tempted. January in England is grey and miserable, and in Florida, especially that far south in Florida, there would be sunshine. And I do love an island. My incredible hosts were American crime writer Roberta Isleib and her husband. We walked out into the warmth for coffee every morning and their apartment was full of light.

Back in the UK, I found an image appearing in my head of a building, bathed in the same overwhelming light. It came from a JG Ballard novel I'd read decades before, called, I think, High Rise. Reading that, I'd created a picture of a futuristic building with sharp lines. Nothing blurred or shadowy. Pop art. Almost like a cartoon.

The house that appeared in my novel was rather different though. It was older. Built in the twenties or thirties. A bungalow with curved lines and metal window frames. Very white. And a swimming pool, impossibly blue. Again, almost like a cartoon or a railway poster. There would be a view down a wooded valley to the sea, with Lundy Island on the horizon. In the swimming pool there would (of course) be a body. It would be mid-summer, with constant, almost relentless sunshine.

I had to populate the house. As I started writing, it became clear that this was a second home. It was owned by a politician, young, charismatic, based in London, using Tide House - by now I had the bungalow's name - as a retreat, a time to spend with his family. The cast of suspects widened to include locals: the couple who ran the nearby gastropub and a farmer, his wife and his son.

I feel I know the returning characters of this series so well that I write them from memory rather than imagination. I hope that they grow with each book. Here, the relationship between Matthew and his husband Jonathan shifts slightly. In the past, Jonathan has been the partner to provide support. In The Dying Light, Matthew sets aside his own needs and anxieties and puts Jonathan first. The rivalry between Jen Rafferty and Ross May softens. Jen feels less of an outsider and Ross has matured.

This cover design of the novel has a different, more mellow light. Sunsets on the North Devon coast are spectacular. I grew up there, and remember beach parties as a teenager, falling in love for the first time, watching the sun go down behind the sea, so the reflection seemed to make a golden path between the horizon and where we were sitting. Something of those memories feed into the story too.

The Dying Light will be published in the UK on October 8th. I'll be touring, mostly in the Southwest around that date. We'll share details soon, but the book is available for pre-order now. Here's the link.

And the US edition will be out on 29th September: order now, using this link.

I'll be out and about later this month to chat about the recent Jimmy Perez book, The Killing Stones, and to celebrate its paperback release. Do come along if you can make it. It'd be lovely to see you.

Sunday, 19th April

Criminally Good Books, York

Friday, 24th April, 12.15pm - 3.00 pm

Erskine Arts, Paisley

Friday, 24th April

An Evening at Edinburgh Castle